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4x4 64 suburban

blazer

I thought all the tires were up, they weren't, two of them were down. That wasn't a big problem though. Bobby the guy I bought it from said he had trouble the last time he moved it around in the yard, said he hadn't had any trouble out of it until this last time he moved it. Said something was grabing or dragins on either the front or the rear I don't remember, but it would have been nice if he had told me that before hand, like when I bought it. It has been sitting for like 10 years thought. I had told Dad that the doors were laying in the back of it, it has no tail gate or hatch on the topper. We brought stuff to secure it down, but it didn't matter we were going to have to get a trailer to be safe, and not to mess anything up. At least i'm glad Bobby told us that, we may have aired up the tires and headed out and been really suprized. But what can you expect for $450. I would have paid alot more than that at a junk yard. Oh yeah, I live like an hour and thirty minets away from my parents house were my suburban is, I work 10 minets away from my parents house at a trucking company. They have me just working sat. I have to get up at 4:00am every sat, but I usually get out at 12:30. The Blazer was across town from my parents, about 30 minets or so. It really sucks thought, I wish I could have got it. Wait till I get some pics, You'll laugh your head off at this poor thing, it's very very humble, if not sad. But it's mine.
 
Welcome to CK5. Last year I helped my friend make his 1964 suburban into a 4x4. We looked for a couple of months to find a nice mid-seventies short bed chevy pick to drop the body on, but were unsuccessful. When the time came, we used a long bed, 1976 chassis. He had to cut 18" out of the straight portion of the frame, but the axles ended up being placed perfectly under the wheel wells.

He had to fabricate all of the body mounts after cutting all of the 1976's off. We used a lift to move the body off and on the frame to take measurements, and build the right sized mounts. As it sits now, it has a little more front fender well space than the 76' vintage truck, but that is attributable to the large front fenders of the suburban.

He used a fuel tank out of a 1991 suburban, and mounted it backwards so the filler neck would fit the correct side. I like how the chassis and bosy have come out.

More specs on this suburban: 500 caddy motor, 700r4, and nearly stock interior. My friend has gone through great pains to create an original looking dash with all vintage instruments.

The best thing about these subs, is their short wheel base (not much longer than a blazer) and spacious interior.

Let me know if you would like to see some pics. I can stop by his house and grab some.
 
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Must see pics.. And if you ever decide to sell it, let me know. I would drive to the state above me for an old burb :bow:
thanks,
James
 
Pics

Yeah, I'd like to see some pics, but I haven't paid the 25 dollar fee, so if you post them as attachments instead of just straight to the page I wouldn't be able to see them though.
 
Glad to hear someone else likes these old burbs, I've had very good luck with my frame swap and am pleased with how well it came out. With that said, hind sight is always 20/20 and it might have been easier with a different frame but I'll explain that later. For me swaping a newer frame was much easier than swaping newer gear on an old frame. Plus the old frame was much lighter and flexyer (is that a word?)

I started with a '76 lwb Chevy truck, 1/2 ton, 44s front and rear, 400sb/350/203 and a '65 GMC suburban 2wd. I had wanted a swb frame because the wheel base would have been just right for the burb but I couldn't find one. The long bed truck is about 18 inches longer than the short if I remember right so I had to cut it down. The frame is exactly right width-wise for all the body mounts. It is not just right height-wise though. The frame is lower under the cab and higher under the bed. This is the part I would change; if you can find a newer suburban frame it may work better. The newer suburban frame is still longer than the older suburban frame (requiring shortening) but it is flatter, similar to the old burb frame.

If you want to attempt this...

Make sure you save the front and rear cab mounts from the stock '65 burb frame (the ones at the fire wall and just behind the doors). If you want to use the stock bumpers you'll need the front and rear frame horns. Measure before you cut the rear ones because they will need to be extra long (the burb body extends further past the rear axel that the p/u bed does). If you want to use the stock burb radiator cut out the cross member for it at the front of the frame and weld into the newer frame. On the new frame cut off all the body mounts, they won't work. Remove the front frame horns if you are using the stock '65 bumpers. If you need to shorten the frame the best place to cut it is at the low part in the center where the front of the p/u bed would be. If you are using a p/u frame rather than a newer suburban frame you may need to notch the top of the frame rail to get the body to sit down on the frame right. Because...

When I first put the body down on the shortened frame one of the rear cross supports hit the frame at the kick-up. At this point the body was still too high on the frame, so I just notched and boxed the frame there to make room for the support. With that change the body came down on the frame like I wanted (I don't like the body lift look) and the front inner fender wells followed the frame rails with about an inch of clearance. But still the frame under the front cab mount and core support were about two inches too low. I put the frame on jack stands and lowered the body to the height I wanted with a finger lift and welded on the rear cab mounts and used 2" square tube to raise the front cab mount and core support mounts. The four rear body mounts were just right.

I will try to get some pictures up soon. I need to shrink them down as they are too large.
 
body

Yeah, definitly would like to see some pictures. That's allsome. When I first came to this site just a short while back I was trying to find information about my K5 Blazer that I had just bought, but i'm really glad there is other people like me out there trying to build one of these old burbs! My plan so far was to swap the Blazer's 4x4 etc... over to the 64's frame, but nothing is writen in stone. However, I was wondering what is the best way to lift the suburban body off the frame without damaging it. I may have access to a lift later this year, when a friend is supost to move back into his shop. But that is not for sure. If I don't have a lift, what would be the best way / cheepest way to swap the bodies?

Thanks,
 
By far the easiest way to lift the body off the frame is with a finger lift. It's not the kind you drive on but rather swing four arms under the truck after you drive between the posts.

If I didn't have access to one of these I had considered using a cherrypicker to lift one end at a time. Then use some heavy wood beams to hold the body up so as to allow the chassis to roll out.

What do you have access to? Are you doing this in the driveway/garage?
 
Oh, I do know what your talking about, I have seen that kind of lift before. I have a good friend that ownes a bike shop, one of his good friends, that i've became friends with, has a garage with two lifts, right now his buddy is paying the rent for the garage and working there, even though my friend still has the lease in his name and I belive he owns the lifts himself. Later on this year I belive he is going to be back in that shop and I would have pretty much free access to them. How ever I don't know what type they are. So I guess i'm in the driveway for now.


Oh yeah, I couldn't see the picture because i'm not a full memeber.
 
More pics...

These are pics of an olds I did in the drive way. We just lifted the body up and used some wood beams to hold it up with barstools of all things. This car body was pretty light so barstools were fine, the burb is bigger so use something stronger.

Olds back together.jpg
 
Could I use something as simple as a highlift jack to lift the burb, and do you think wood beams would be strong enough to hold it, or something rigged up with angle iron?

Thanks,
 
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Frame pics

The first pic is of the finished frame.
2nd is the front cab mount and behind that you can see the frame notch.
Next is the core support spacer. It was slightly rear of the p/u mount, that's why it's angled backwards (it's welded to the stock p/u core support). You can also see the frame horns welded in place, they had to be raised slightly as well.
Next is a shot of the rear cab mount and the frame notch, -- no laughing at my welds.
And last you can see the rear frame horn. You can see here how much of the stock frame I added on.

Finished Frame.jpg

frame1.jpg

frame3.jpg

frame4.jpg

frame6.jpg
 
64suburban said:
Could I use something as simple as a highlift jack to lift the burb, and do you think wood beams would be strong enough to hold it, or something rigged up with angle iron?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
I would be afraid the highlift might be a little unstable if not done just right. But if you're carefull if could work, esp if your only doing one end at a time. As far as metal or wood it depends on what you have. If you have to buy something I would think 2 or 3 2x8s nailed together would be cheaper than metal.
 
This is not a great pic but the burb is on the new frame with the old in the foreground. You can see how much flatter the old frame is compared to the new frame in the previous post.

compare.jpg
 
64suburban - there's no way to post pics directly off of your computer such that nonpaying members can view them. you have two options, you can pay up or you can ask the dude to email the pics to you. i'd recommend paying up - with the task at hand, you'll be here alot. I made all of my $25 back in the first three days i was here. I've saved well over a hundred dollars in less than a month since i bought my subscription. I was on the site for almost a year debating if i should drop the dough, and finally did. Some of the best $25 ever spent. ;) that's my ck5 plug of the day.
 
Great project. I really like it. Be sure to keep us updated.
 
Yeah, your right I'll have to drop the dough eventually but right now I'm only workin 8 hour on sat, at USF Holland, making a little over a hundred a week, while I'm still in school. Probably have to wait ti'll May, when I'll be working any where from 40 to pretty much 60 hours a week during the summer. But yeah, it will be along time and an a few questions before my burb is complete.

Oh yeah, is the $25 yearly or one time?

Thanks,
 
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